CNN Protects Obama from the 'Fascist' Label

By Cliff KincaidJanuary 24, 2013 12:09 pm

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Fred Barnes wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Obama’s inauguration speech proves that he is an “ideologically committed liberal” and not a “pragmatist and a centrist.” Professor Paul Kengor is far more accurate when he describes Obama as a “hardcore leftist,” a polite way of saying “Marxist.” Kengor fully understands the nature of Obama’s Marxism because he wrote a book about Obama’s mentor, Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis, which the major media did their best to ignore during the 2012 campaign.

It is to Obama’s benefit to be thought of merely as a “liberal,” even though the more popular term these days is “progressive.” But it is not “liberalism” that we are seeing out of Obama and his White House.

A brave soul, John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, raised the specter of fascism when he was talking about the requirements of the top-down federal Obamacare system. The term made Carol Costello of CNN go into orbit on a recent program but Mackey got the better of the exchange because the facts were on his side and Costello came across as an ignoramus trying to make cheap political points.

Mackey said the term “fascism” was a poor choice of words but it is technically true. As he noted, “traditionally ‘socialism’ means that the means of production are run by the government and in ‘fascism’ the means of production are still owned by private individuals but they’re controlled by the government. And what’s happening is our health care plan is moving—our health care system is moving away from free enterprise capitalism towards greater governmental control.”

In the case of socialized medicine, it is a matter of the degree of control exercised by the federal government. Government direction can lead to outright ownership, which is probably where Obamacare is heading. All of these objectionable ideologies are on the left side of the political spectrum. Freedom and free enterprise are on the right side.

National Socialism, or fascism, was the ideology of Hitler’s Nazi Party, a fact that scares most “progressives” and even socialists away from the use of the term. “You realize when you say ‘fascism’ it brings up Nazi Germany and all sorts of things,” Costello said, as if she had a Ph.D in history and political science and was capable of lecturing the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

That led to this humorous exchange:

Costello: And we really want that kind of language out of the public forum at the moment, don’t we?

Mackey: Apparently you can’t use that word in America any longer, it’s taboo.

Costello: That’s right because some of your customers…

Mackey: So be careful, you just used it.”

Mackey, co-author of the new book, Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business, understands the game the media are playing. The media want desperately to avoid any hint that what Obama is trying to do is totalitarian in any way. He turned the tables on Costello, in order to make the point that she wanted to close down the debate.

Reflecting the modern “liberal” mindset, Costello also said to Mackey, “Why inject yourself into the debate over Obamacare in the first place?”

Think about the implications of this question. Here is a businessman, an American citizen, who provides good and services to the American people and is responsible as well for taking care of his own employees. The phrase “inject yourself into the debate” is offensive on its face. He has every right, even a duty and obligation, to speak out. This is a form of intimidation, directed at the business community, on behalf of those in the media who want the opposition to Obama to fade away and be quiet.

Mackey, to his credit, shot back, “Whole Foods has 73,000 team members that we provide insurance for and these changes in the law have greatly affected us. It’s raising our costs. It’s making it more difficult to provide the insurance at affordable rates to our—to our team members so I’m trying to protect them as well as I can.”

Costello countered, “I think, though, that many of your customers probably wouldn’t agree with you since, I don’t know, you kind of run a store that appeals to the more liberal in America in some ways.” She went on to say it was somehow “liberal” to sell “organic foods” and emphasize healthy food choices.

I’ve got news for CNN. There are plenty of conservative families, including my own, who shop at Whole Foods. It is not “liberal” or “conservative” to eat and stay healthy. John Mackey’s store in Annapolis, Maryland, is a favorite place for my family to shop. It is appealing for many different reasons, including that local farmers and vendors are given an opportunity to sell their products. Meats and breads are always fresh. Plus, there is an opportunity to eat on the premises.

Eventually, the CNN interview turned to Mackey’s book, and he was able to make some important points about why his company is successful in the capitalist system. This great success story, however, is now at risk. And the danger is fascism, socialism, Marxism, or whatever you want to call it.

Now that Mackey has experienced the sting of media bias, perhaps he can turn his attention to the problem of maintaining a free enterprise system in the face of assaults from an uninformed and biased national press corps.

On his blog, Mackey expressed “regret” for using the term “fascism.” The apologies should be coming from the media personalities who fail to understand and report the political reality of what is happening in the United States.

Equally important, conservative commentators should not pretend the problem is Obama’s “liberalism.” Don’t take us for fools.

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Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism, and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org.

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14 Comments

Comment by imlaughlin January 24, 2013 @ 11:44 am

A further step down the “national socialism” road is the Dem/lib tactic of attacking anyone who dares speak up against their fasc…, er, “progressive” policies. Germany’s National Socialist Party did this with bands of thugs. Dems do it with their internet activist sites calling for economic boycotts of businesses, and personal attacks on individuals.

So true…note how Obozo and his posse go after anyone that disagrees or rebuffs them. This administration is evil…outright evil!

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Comment by juanmotie January 24, 2013 @ 4:03 pm

It is too funny to hear the national socialist liberal fascist squeal when they are labeled fascist! The left has bought in to the big lie by another of their socialist heroes – joe stalin – that fascism is a philosophy of the right. Nothing could be further from the truth! Fascism is and always has been socialist in nature and a first cousin to communism. While the current liberal fascist version of fascism is not the iron fisted, hob-nail boot system of WWII germany, it is still fascism. I like to call it “big momma” fascist because of the way the left always looks to government as their “big momma” who will provide for all their earthly and spiritual needs.

It is a shame that only the libs are meant to enjoy freedom of speech based only on their parameters of reality. The reality of the situation is that our current president is a socialist. Unfortunately, he ran on the Democratic ticket rather than the socialist or the nazi party. Now that he got elected again, he has the mistaken idea that whatever he does will be just fine. I can’t believe that people were stupid enough to vote for him again after seeing what harm he brought. I wonder what those people think now that he is shooting off his mouth as if he has the only say-so about what goes down in this country.

Not sure I understand your point. Believe powertothepeople was using “Obozo” as a term for President Obama. Thanks.

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Comment by NY Graham January 24, 2013 @ 6:16 pm

Words like socialism, fascism and communism all have links to oppressive totalitarian regimes that slaughtered millions of innocent victims. Although they may accurately describe the modern “progressive” philosophy, I understand why modern liberals throw a fit when conservatives use these terms to describe them. After all, the Obama administration has not committed mass murder, even if its policies are routed in Marxism.

I like the term Mark Levin uses: statist. It perfectly describes the modern liberal mindset, in which the government is an all powerful entity, and more government is the answer to any problem. No liberal can deny this. And statist can mean socialist (as in government run school system and healthcare), fascist (as in government subsidies for certain businesses to control the private sector), or communist (where a politician decides how much money a person really “needs” before punitive taxes kick in). It can mean all of the above and other big government/nanny state ideals as well.

It is a fact and it is insulting to the American electorate that he doesn’t admit it up front.

In any socialist based system the answer to any problems that arise is more government control. They firmly believe that they could have forced the economy to act as they wanted if only they had had more control.

This is why the ultimate end to Socialism will always be totalitarianism.

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Comment by veva January 25, 2013 @ 12:48 pm

“STATIST” has been used publicly for a very short time. It is not a term that is familiar to the general public! Have you not seen or read of Obama’s reading Marx’s writings and Hitler’s writings. And Davis had a big influence on him, ages 10-21 yrs.. He is a fascist. Why take over GM, Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac and rescue certain banks, and government-run health care? Call a spade, a spade.

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Comment by middleground January 25, 2013 @ 10:45 am

When I received an email in July of 2008 from a friend inviting me to view on U=Tube Obama’s speech in Denver calling for his very own SS army “with funding equivalent the US Army”, I couldn’t believe the media wouldn’t drop their support for him like a hot potato or do we really have so many naive people in this country that they couldn’t see the similarity between Obama’s “Dreams of my Father” and Hitler’s Mein Kampf (My War). Nothing I’ve seen in the last 4 years has changed my opinion that we’ve elected a person whose agenda is contrary to Constitutional government, and his two SC appointments drive this home like a burning arrow.

None of this should surprise us. Obama was an out-and-out Marxist at Occidental College in 1980, according to John Drew, a fellow Marxist student at the time. Google “Meeting Young Obama” and read it for yourself.

Yes, most people change in their later years; we aren’t necessarily the same people we were in college. But all you have to do is look at Obama’s power grabs and his tendency to go for “control” of everything, and you’ll have your answer as to whether he’s any different now than he was then. I don’t think he’s one bit different. And if he and Feinstein have their way about guns, you’ll know I’m right, big time.